Sri Lanka's navy sank 11 Tamil Tiger rebel ships loaded with troops and weapons early yesterday during a five-hour battle off the country's east coast, killing about 70 separatists, a top navy official said.
It was one of the largest reported clashes in Sri Lanka's conflict since fighting began last month.
The latest clash began late on Sunday night when the navy spotted 25 rebel ships sailing south.
Navy Commander. D. K. P. Dassanayake said that more than 70 rebels were killed and two other ships, believed to have been transporting arms and ammunition, were in flames.
The remaining 14 rebel boats retreated after the hostilities just off the coast of the town of Pulmoddai, about 225km from the capital, he said.
One navy vessel was damaged and five sailors were injured, he said,but the ship was able to return to port.
An officer at the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry's press office said that Seliyan, one of the commanders of the Tigers' sea wing, may have been killed in the battle.
Seliyan's boat was among those badly damaged and stopped communicating during the battle, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The rebels were not immediately available for comment.
The clash came as foreign mediators are struggling to revive a four-year old Norwegian-brokered ceasefire, which has unraveled amid clashes that have killed at least 1,000 combatants and more than 100 civilians since July.
The Tamil rebels began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland in the north and east for Sri Lanka's largest ethnic minority. They have suffered defeats on both fronts in the recent escalation and vowed to retake land lost to the government.
Farther down the eastern coast, thousands of Muslims were fleeing the port town of Mutur after the distribution of leaflets warning of an imminent rebel attack. The town is located about 230km east of Colombo.
Around 1,400 refugees, including women and children, sought shelter on the nearby island of Kinniyai, while many more were prevented from leaving by authorities who said they had nothing to fear.
The exodus has forced many to abandon their traditional observance of the Islamic fasting month, Ramadan, which began in in the country on Sunday.
It was the second time since last month that the mostly Muslim residents of Mutur have fled the town. They had returned home just two weeks ago after being driven out by fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.
The government has ordered families that have spent several weeks staying in emergency shelters and schools in neighboring towns to return to the Mutur area after closing down refugee camps that local communities said were disrupting their lives.
With sporadic fighting and shelling continuing nearby, aid workers said the resettlement was done too soon.
"The haste in resettlement was obviously to show the world that the Sri Lankan government is in control of Mutur," the rebels said in a message on their official Web site, www.ltteps.org.
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